On the 57th floor of Chicago’s Chase Tower, the view of Chicago is nearly incomparable: visitors can take in the city as a whole, and from up there, it all looks very beautiful and peaceful, which is fitting considering the goal of the event held there this morning; POLITICO magazine’s inaugural What Works event, sponsored by JP Morgan Chase. There’s so much that isn’t going right in American politics and the economy that it’s easy to miss what is, and that’s the purpose of What Works, POLITICO says: to foster discussion on what is working well in American cities, highlighting innovative ideas and how they spread in cities across the country.
Today the event in Chicago involved two panels: one featuring a host of entrepreneurs and thinkers to discuss their side of things, and another with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, and Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto. What followed was a fascinating discussion about technology, business, and the positive things that cities and Chicago are doing that work. When we study success, Peter Scher of Chase observed, it’s instructive. It certainly was.
Cities With Specific Knowledge
One of the panelists of the first panel, Prof. Saskia Sassen of Columbia University, joked that Chicago is nearly perfect, and while citizens may agree or disagree, it is a fact that Chicago has begun to carve out its place in the business landscape due to its specific strengths. It is generally believed, Sassen said, that cities compete more than they actually do: cities have their specific talents and resources that make them unique, so while they compete in some ways, our differences are what make us specifically successful. Chicago’s deep history of manufacturing knowledge, Sassen observed, is what set the city apart in the past, and acknowledged that while that talent remains the same in some spaces, it has also transformed as local entrepreneurs have sought to make the Windy City a hub for the next generation of knowledge workers. Specifically, technology.
Howard Tullman, CEO of 1871, says that it is Chicago’s knowledge base that sets it apart from other cities that are attempting to do what Chicago has done in building a landscape that fosters entrepreneurial talent. By bringing the big five universities of Chicago together, Tullman says, 1871 and thus the Chicago tech community has been able to tap into a significant knowledge source that makes the tech space more competitive, more viable, and more unique, and that community is digital as well as physical.
1871 has a huge space in the Merchandise Mart, a physical gathering place for the tech community of Chicago where Tullman says the exchange of ideas and energy goes on all the time. Built In is the virtual platform for that community, Built In CEO Maria Katris says, with 20,000 registered members who, if they can’t attend events in person, have the opportunity to engage and communicate with their sector online. The connectedness has enabled the community to foster its own growth, and support from the mayor’s office, says Katris, has been beneficial as well. Mayor Emanuel has fostered a lot of [tech] success, she said, adding that the city has seen a shift in the way the major’s office and the administration deals with entrepreneurs. They’re open to so many more things, she said, pointing to startups like Divvy, the blue bikes that have taken over the streets of Chicago. Almost anything.
Mayoral Support, Entrepreneurial Initiative, and Critical Technology
On the topic of cities being more open to working with entrepreneurs, moderator Susan Glasser of POLITICO magazine posed the question: How much do cities need to change in order to pave the way for a future that is tech-savvy and entrepreneurially strong? CEO of Effortless Energy, Clair Tramm, says that the changes are already taking place, with entrepreneurs champing at the bit to begin new initiatives, previously blockaded by a lack of support from the city. Now, she says, governments are shifting their focus: framing the market and creating opportunities for entrepreneurs and allowing themselves to be more engaged with bright young companies who then take the reins for growth and job creation.
New technology is the critical contribution, Prof. Sassen added, noting that if cities can use technology to activate more areas of the city specifically areas that are typically disadvantaged then the payoff will be great. People are critical actors in reinventing cities, she says, and the government should be activating those people. Open-sourcing the neighborhood, she added, could be a path to cooperation between the government, citizens, and business.
The Portability of Big Ideas
Another asset that Chicago has, Katris noted, is its tighter sense of community, both literal and figurative. While the technology scene thrives in San Francisco, it lacks the geographic tightness of Chicago that encourages the spreading of ideas. Hosting an event in River North, she observed, means being accessible to 90% of the sector in Chicago, as the majority of that community is located within a tight radius to Merchandise Mart. While members of a sector in Los Angeles, for example, are unlikely to drive from Culver City to Santa Monica for an event, the closeness of Chicago means that the community that is creating the big ideas are more likely to come together and share them. Different cities have different cultures of support, Tramm observed, and she says Chicago is on the cusp of perfection when it comes to the ways we share and help one another in our sectors.
Facing Down Obstacles
Despite the challenges Chicago faces, Katris insists that the city’s only real obstacle in the tech space is talent: people with the skills to move into this unique space and take it to the next level. Tullman noted that reform in education, universities of the Chicago area, and high-end vocational training are on their way to solving that problem by 2022, and by the time the mayors took the stage for the next panel, the stage was set to discuss education.
Mayor Emanuel acknowledged that education is one of his biggest focuses, for a multitude of reasons, but, in the business space, for the purpose of creating those knowledge workers that will carry the job economy of Chicago on to success in coming years. Our universities are our biggest economic engines, he said of older students, then going on to outline the new launch of Summer of Learning and Summer of Earning, programs that will prevent young students from backsliding over the summer, engaging libraries, museums, and camps to help create the educated workers of tomorrow. It is not only colleges but pre-K that will produce the ideas and talent that will drive Chicago’s economy. Our best incentive is our workers, Emanuel said, and that includes students.
1871 was named after the story of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It isn’t really about the fire, 1871’s messaging goes, but about what happened next: a remarkable moment when the most brilliant engineers, architects, and inventors came together to build a new city. Their innovations born of passion and practical ingenuity shaped not just Chicago, but the modern world. What started 140 years ago continues to this day.
Indeed it does. As Prof. Sassen said, every city has its own stock of knowledge, its own unique collection of voices that makes it powerful in its own right. Looking at its vast community of startups and eager entrepreneurs, we see Chicago begin to shift into a city of the future. It seems that this city doesn’t need to burn to become something greater than it was before.